


Alive will have to do

by PrinceofHellebore (PrinceofPlants)



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Cannon Typical Violence, Do not read if you haven't listened, I'm not kidding, Kissing, M/M, Mild Gore, Spoilers for Ep 174, Temporary Death, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27001699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofPlants/pseuds/PrinceofHellebore
Summary: No Alex, that doesn't happen! A fix-it for Ep 174 for all those who can't wait for the next episode and need a bandage for their hearts.
Relationships: Zolf Smith & Oscar Wilde, Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde
Comments: 13
Kudos: 40





	Alive will have to do

**Author's Note:**

> No seriously, if you haven't listened to Episode 174 Impact. I really recommend you do because this is highly detailed and will super spoil it. 
> 
> Yeah so, I got my heart broken over Wilde. I guess that's my fault for having basic Human needs.  
> This goes out to everyone that can't wait until next time for canon relief and need a little escapist detour. Hope you like it.  
> Note: The premise that I'm running with is that Wilde was the only death and Azu was able to heal up everybody else. Because if I save one NPC, I should really save them all.

Hamid landed back on the deck, and spoke quickly. The land below was forested however there was a clearing but they’d have to go down and go down now. 

“Captain?” Zolf said as soon as he had parsed the necessity of landing immediately. 

“Do it,” Earheart said shortly, already turning to organize the effort elsewhere. Zolf took in a breath and then let it out. He could feel the ship under his feet. Even though his instruments were still giving false readings he could sense the loss of altitude, and worse he could feel the list. It was like when his ship had started to take on water in the port bilges just before the ship broke all those years ago when Zolf and all the rest of the crew had been cast into the waves. Dread welled up in him. 

Zolf’s knuckles whitened on the wheel. He had some control here in the helm but he had to wait for Cel to reroute power to compensate for the loss of the engine. He watched Hamid take off again from the bow, his ludicrous neon clothing standing out against the grey of their surroundings. He was waving, and a cluster of torches swung out to port. 

Zolf watched as power became available and he adjusted to Hamid’s guidance, but he could feel the lack of starboard engine was causing a gradual turn in that direction. Others moved about him, the kobolds scrambled across the deck and Barnes was systematically tensioning the lines that stabilized the wings and fins. 

“We need some drag! Let out the port studdingsail.” Barnes turned, and yanked a pin from the rail to loose a line and then hauled in the opposing. The sail pulled out along the yard arm and the gradual turn towards starboard lessened.

Then Zolf could see the trees and not the clearing. They had lost so much altitude; more than he had thought or planned for. Hamid was still guiding them and then the treeline broke and he could see the expanse of white untouched snow. There was a tremendous sound of snapping trees and the hull scratching along the canopy. 

“Brace yourselves! Secure Harness!” The treetops unstabalized their flight, the bow dipped. Zolf’s heart pounded. There was little he could do but work the fins and try to keep _The Vengeance_ upright. The ship lowered and skimmed along the snow, which flew up into their faces and then the starboard wing hit something and the ship rotated, skidding along, plowing now into the topsoil. Zolf saw lines tauten, then snap. His heart plummeted as he watched and could do nothing to prevent Barnes and Carter from being flung over the rail. Others went to, but in the churned up snow and dirt he couldn’t tell who or where. The ship ground across the clearing and then into the far treeline and stopped. 

Zolf’s heart pounded, loudly, high in his chest. The deck was angled sharply to starboard. And there was for a moment silence. Cries started up and Zolf unclipped his own harness and slid down the deck to the railing, shouting. “Right find Azu, find everybody who is unconscious, bring em to me or Azu, we can sort em out, right I’m going out to start helping, bring em to me! let’s go!" He jumped to the ground, landing in a drift of waist deep snow. 

Zolf turned about, trying to figure out which direction most people had been flung and saw nearby, a fold of cloak and a booted foot, and the glint of metal. Zolf struck out, wading through the snow, his mouth was suddenly dry and he wanted to just stop because Wilde couldn’t be dead. If he didn’t look he didn’t have to confront the fact that Wilde was dead. He was already crying at the unfairness that Wilde had grimly survived everything up until now and this accident was what took him away. But Zolf couldn't actually tell from where he stood if he lived or not and the slim glimmer of hope pushed him forward through the snow. The anticipation of loss already lanced through him. 

As Zolf got closer the world shrank in around him. The sound of the others calling to one another became incomprehensible. Wilde’s face was ashen, his limbs sprawled, graceless, and a spire of wood planking pinned him through his chest to the ground. Zolf fell to his knees. He knew that was un-survivable. He knew it and hoped anyway because… he couldn’t accept it. 

Zolf crawled forward, stripping his gloves off and picked up Wilde’s hand. It was lifeless, already cold in this freezing place. Zolf closed his hands over it and pulled it to his chest. He should get up, move on to help the others but he couldn’t, his knees wouldn’t work, his heart wouldn’t work. 

The unfairness of it all washed over him again and he felt furious. It shouldn’t end like this. Tears were freezing, stingingly, on his cheeks. He wiped them away. 

Zolf stood and stumbled away, hands trembling, hot furious tears sliding down his face and saw Hamid helping a pair of Kobolds out of the snow. Cel knelt by Fredrich who was rousing. Earheart was with Kiko and Siggif, clambering back into the ship and passing down furs and blankets and other kit. Azu and Barnes were bringing a limping dazed Carter back around the broken prow. A quick count had everyone accounted for. Azu could see to everyone and Zolf could take a moment to grieve for Wilde alone.

Zolf took another breath, shaking. He felt hollow; all the purpose and intention of his time with Wilde fell out of Zolf leaving only emptyness. How could they continue? Zolf hadn’t felt this hopeless since the tunnels under Paris and seeing Sasha dismantled on that horrible table. He’d undone that and hadn’t that been worse than this. Zolf turned to Wilde’s legs and worked the catches on the shackles to remove them. He paused then, Sasha’s injury had been complex but also orderly and there had still been some spark of life. This? This was something else entirely. Zolf clenched his teeth and grasped the wooden spire. He closed his eyes and pulled it free, shutting out the noise of it from his mind. 

He knelt again and pressed his hands onto the whole bits of Wilde’s chest either side of the wound and pushed magic into him. But it didn’t do anything. 

“How dare you leave like this?” he said. “How dare you make me hope for months that you had answers and were going to… to…” Zolf was crying again, filled once more with a world too big to handle. “Come back. We need you. I need you.” He set his hands down again and concentrated on the need, on all the hope and trust he’d put in Wilde for the last year, and all the hope that their work could restore their world, and then he tried again. The magic was different this time, bigger, brighter, colder. It seemed to come in a stream from a long way away. He closed his eyes and clung to the hope that this could bring Wilde back. Suddenly there was warmth and steam around Zolf and then the pings of hot metal cooling. Zolf sat stock still as the magic ebbed. For a moment he didn't feel anything change. Then his hands rose then fell fractionally, and then again. The third time Zolf opened his eyes, the wound had closed, skin was visible and whole under the rent cloth of Wilde’s coat and shirt. Zolf stared, he could feel tears rolling down his cheeks but didn’t care.

“That’s a new tactic, tears rather than create water. Seems inefficient.”

Zolf looked at Wilde's face. “You’re alive, gods, I thought I wouldn’t be able to get you back.”

Wilde moved, a touch achingly, to prop himself up on his elbows. “Was I dead? I…”

Zolf wiped at his eyes, “I thought so, but…” He was shaking again this time with relief. “I think… I think I resurrected you.”

“Ooh, better not tell the Meritocrats.” Wilde grimaced playfully, a hand pushing back locks of hair from his face. He sobered slightly and then smiled crookedly again, “you care that much for me, do you?”

Fresh fury filled Zolf, this time familiar and constant for anyone acquainted with Wilde, “you self-centered… egotistical…” Zolf protested. And then he saw how quickly the smile had slid off Wilde's face. “yes, of course I care just don’t let it go to your head.”

The smile returned and Wilde said, “too late.”

“And now I regret it.” Zolf quipped. 

“I hope not.” And Wilde tilted forward and kissed Zolf. It was soft and short, chaste in a way that Zolf found hard to reconcile with the way Wilde flirted. When Wilde pulled away Zolf did regret that. Wilde sat back and studied Zolf’s face. “Forgive me, only I realized I could have missed my opportunity for that and didn’t want to pass it up." 

Zolf's heart fluttered, an echo of the earlier pounding. He couldn't have guessed that Wilde had felt that way, or that it was what he himself wanted. He closed the distance and kissed Wilde briefly. "I'm so glad you're back." He knew he was still shaking slightly.

”Me too." Wilde sighed and then smiled. "How is everyone else?”

“They’re alright, some serious injuries but nothing that Azu couldn't get to. I had my hands full with you.” 

“Oh, you’re making it really hard not to feel special. Seems like we were lucky then.”

“For now... The ship is in a state and we don't really know where we are.” 

“Alive…” Wilde sighed, “that will have to do.” He clambered to his feet, locking the shackles once more about his ankles and extended a hand to Zolf to help him rise.

**Author's Note:**

> Right so at minimum Wilde is alive here and there's at least hope in canon. Love you all. Hope reading this helped soothe you as much as writing it did me. We're all in this together.  
> Love,  
> Prince of Hellebore


End file.
